ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impact of social factors on the construction of the self. There are social mechanisms that contribute to — and enforce — conceptions of the self, that produce gender— related identities, and that contribute to a person's sense of an empowered self. The gender ideology causes women and men to sanction themselves and others when they contemplate non-traditional work or when they are recruits to the jobs within a company. The restrictions on change that are exercises by significant others are not necessarily focuses on gender issues. The changes in the self resulting from a new job, one that carries a change in rank, is of particular significance to a person and the community from which the person comes. The concepts of multiple selves or clusters of identities help in understands certain paradoxes. Technological or organizational changes imposed by the company can disrupt worker roles and identities and produce anxiety and dissatisfaction.
